JA Solar Planning to Invest $947 mn to Build 2 PV Manufacturing Plants

JA Solar is planning to invest USD 947.7 million for two new solar PV manufacturing plants in China with a combined annual production capacity of 15 GW.

China-based leading manufacturer of high-performance photovoltaic (PV) products, JA Solar has announced that it is planning to invest CNY 6.6 billion (USD 947.7 million) for the establishment of two new solar PV manufacturing plants in China with a combined annual production capacity close to 15 GW.

The company has signed a framework agreement with the management committee of a local industrial zone in China’s Zhejiang province regarding the proposed investment, it said in a bourse filing.

The firm intends to build a production facility in Yiwu city where it will be able to make 5 GW of solar PV cells per year, while a new 10-GW factory will produce PV modules. According to the manufacturer, the construction of the two new bases is expected to take around four years but this will not have an impact on its current revenue.

Recently, it was reported that the firm had won the bid for supplying 490 MW of high-efficiency modules for Huanghe Hydropower’s ultra-high voltage (UHV) Transmission Project in Qinghai Province, China. Huanghe Hydropower is a subsidiary of SPIC (State Power Investment Corporation), one of the biggest power investors in China. 

The project, with a scale of 3.1 GW, is the world’s leading UHV demonstration project. This is also of great significance for the application of new technologies and the exploration of deploying renewable energy projects with UHV.

Before that, in November the firm had reported that it had supplied an aggregate 134 MW of its PERC double-glass solar modules to a renewable energy project developer, Fotowatio Renewable Ventures (FRV), in Jordan.

These modules were supplied for two solar projects, i.e. 67MW dc Mafraq I solar plant and 67MW dc Empire solar plant, which are among the first set of projects in the Middle East region that use double-glass modules. The two solar plants are now operational and are expected to generate an aggregate of 260 million kWh of electricity per year. They will also help in reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 210,000 tons per year.